Hekmatyar criticizes election system

KABUL: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hizb-e-Islami, said that if parliamentary elections are held as planned less than 10 percent of the people will have representatives in parliament. Addressing an Ulema meeting in Kabul on Wednesday, Hekmatyar told religious scholars and imams that they must not turn a blind eye to the situation but must support national events such as elections.

Hekmatyar said religious scholars need to be mobilized to help resolve current challenges. However, he criticized the election system and said the process was unfair.

He stated the “electoral system and what the electoral process stands for is very unjust, abandoned and a rejected system.”

“Everyone follows his own opinion. We have no unity among ourselves. If you were united today, the system would not have a problem,” said Abdul Hakim Mujahid a member of the high peace council.

According to Hekmatyar, more than half of the country’s population will be deprived of the right to vote in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“Is an election worthy if half of the population of the country is deprived of their right to vote? What will it be worth and which problem will be solved?” asked Hekmatyar.

Meanwhile, Hekmatyar raised his concerns over the rising civilian casualty toll in the country.

This comes after UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) expressed its concern over the increased number of civilian casualties from airstrikes this year in Afghanistan.

In the first six months of the year, UNAMA documented 353 civilian casualties (149 deaths and 204 injured) from aerial attacks, a 52 percent increase from the same period in 2017. It is of particular concern that women and children made up more than half of all aerial attack civilian casualties, according to the statement.

UNAMA attributed 52 percent of all civilian casualties from aerial attacks to the Afghan forces, 45 percent to international military forces, and the remaining three percent to unidentified pro-government forces.

Around seven percent of all civilian casualties in the Afghan conflict in the first half of the year were attributed to air operations.